Introducing pre-service education students to university experiences through an augmented reality game

Transcription

1 Itroducig pre-service educatio studets to uiversity experieces through a augmeted reality game Chris Campbell School of Educatio The Uiversity of Queeslad Aisha Salim Ali Al-Harthi College of Educatio Sulta Qaboos Uiversity Augmeted reality has come ito its ow recetly due to the advet of Pokémo Go. However, this techology has bee aroud for several years ad there is a icreasig body of kowledge available. This study reports o a augmeted reality game (ARG), called the UQ Amazig Race, that was developed for a first year educatio course for studets studyig to be teachers. Studets had the opportuity to complete the UQ Amazig Race i class tutorials ad the report o their experieces by completig a survey a week later. Studets experieces were ivestigated particularly regardig how the experiece is differet by geder ad comfort with techology. Results suggest the game was egagig for all studets but particularly positive for female studets. Studets with more comfort with techology reported sigificatly higher participatio i the ARG. Keywords: Augmeted reality game; ARG; pre-service teachers; educatioal techology Itroductio Due to icreased access to fast Iteret ad mobile devices, augmeted reality games (ARGs) are becomig more commo, particularly those used i educatio. This was icreasig prior to the release of Pokémo Go i July, However, ow there is much talk i educatioal circles about how augmeted reality ca be used for educatioal purposes (Vercelletto, 2016; Yoder, 2016). This talk is occurrig by teachers of the youger years through to high school ad also i tertiary educatio. Studets icreasigly have their ow devices that they ca use i their studies ad studets i schools also ofte have access to various types of devices. This meas that ARGs ca readily be used by academics to ehace studet learig ad egage them. The augmeted reality game (ARG), called the UQ Amazig Race, described i this paper was developed by oe of the authors i order to ehace the learig experiece of the large first year course ad to expose future teachers to the possibilities of usig ARGs i teachig. This paper reports o the game developmet as well as the learig experieces of studets playig a ARG as part of a first year School of Educatio course Learig Tools for the 21 st Cetury. This paper also covers aspects of the ARG pedagogy as well as the experiece for the studets at The Uiversity of Queeslad ad how the ARG assisted with their course experiece. The aim of the UQ Amazig Race was to itroduce studets to various locatios ad useful iformatio about the campus. Locatios icluded the faculty office, studet services, computer lab locatio, the library ad where to locate wireless iteret assistace. Literature Review Augmeted Reality is a ehaced versio of reality created by the use of techology to overlay digital iformatio o a image of somethig beig viewed through a device (as a smartphoe camera) (Merriam- Webster, Ic, 2014, p. 1). For istace, mobile phoes ca be used as viewfiders through which a user looks while textual iformatio about various objects i the physical space are overlayed o the objects o the scree. Educatioal ARGs ofte revolve aroud a cetral mystery that studets must solve either idividually or i a group. Through the process of solvig this challege, studets utilise a techological medium (e.g. ipad) to gather virtual data from their eviromet that provides the learig upo which the evet is iitially based. Thus, learig o the topic is ecessary to successfully solve the mystery. Research shows that playig educatioal ARGs geerally has a positive effect o studet egagemet ad motivatio (O Shea & Folkestad, 2010; O Shea, Mitchell, Johstog, & Dede, 2009; Squire & Ja, 2007). It is possible that there are differeces betwee studets i their use of the ARG based o their geder ad techology level. Accordig to Kimbrough, Guadago, Muscaell, ad Dill (2013) wome use mediated commuicatio more frequetly tha me. The research project reported i this paper has the followig research questios: 105

2 1. What are the studet levels of egagemet whe usig a ARG game i a teacher educatio course? 2. Is that experiece differet by studets geder ad comfort with techology? Methodology This study ivolved studets erolled i a first year School of Educatio course EDUC1049 Learig Tools for the 21 st Cetury who were udertakig a Bachelor of Educatio (Secodary) degree. There were approximately 350 studets erolled i the course with all studets who atteded the tutorial class i week 1 of classes havig the opportuity to complete the UQ Amazig Race i class time. I their groups, studets completed the treasure hut i ay order they wished with studets workig i groups of approximately four studets. The studets were able to complete a survey o their experieces usig the ARG, the UQ Amazig Race, durig class the ext week. The survey cosisted of both closed ad ope-eded questios with oly the closed questios are reported here. The research sample cosisted of mostly, first ad secod year educatio studets. 219 studets respoded to the survey about their experieces i usig the ARG. I some of the followig aalyses the total sample size may be differet because missig values were treated aalysis by aalysis, i other words oly complete data was used for each aalysis depedig o the available data for each variable. 69% of studets who completed the survey were erolled i first year, with 19% of studets i their secod year of the course, 9% i third year, 2% i fourth year ad just 1% i their fourth year of the course. This distributio of studets who participated i the survey is represetative of the spread of the studets i the course, which is mostly udertake by first year studets. Game Developmet The developmet of this game came about due to a researcher from the Uited States visitig the uiversity with a Uiversity of Queeslad travel grat. At this time professioal developmet was coducted for school teachers ad oe of the researchers was ivolved with the workshop developmet ad thus atteded the workshops (O Shea ad Campbell, 2016). The ARG was created usig Aurasma (2014), a program to create a ARG as well as a website to have the back boe of the game. Numerous aspects of campus life were ivestigated ad the chose oes were icluded i the game. A website was set up for studets to access. Videos were also created to give studets iformatio o various topics, icludig the game itroductio, electroic course profile iformatio ad computer lab iformatio. The game was coducted i class tutorials. Studets had 30 miutes to gai as may poits as possible. Studets would go to the locatio, use Aurasma to brig up a website ad iformatio. The poits were give for successfully completig the tasks ad aswerig questios icludig the opeig hours of the Faculty office, the ame of oe perso i the School of Educatio office, library locatio ad how to get assistace i settig up Eduroam. For locatios where the image may chage regularly (for example, daily due to differet bikes beig racked) poits were also give for studets locatig, takig a photo ad the ig the tutor a photo of the bicycle racks. Assistace to the researcher was give by the Faculty Educatioal Desiger who assisted with testig of the game as well as problem solvig aythig that was difficult to use. Results Overall, o a scale from 1 (strogly disagree) to 5 (strogly agree), studets reported a positive experiece of participatig i the UQ Amazig Race ARG game, with meas equal to 3.50 or above for all the statemets, as preseted i Table 1. Also ivestigated were the differeces betwee studets accordig to geder ad their comfort level with techology. 106

3 Table 1: Descriptive statistics of experiece of usig a ARG i a pre-service teacher educatio course. Statemets 1. I ejoyed participatig i the ARG. 2. I foud playig the ARG egagig. 3. Through the ARG I got to kow some of my classmates. 4. Through the ARG I leared some aspects related to uiversity services ad facilities. 5. I actively participated i the ARG. 6. I feel more cofidet ow to participate i a future ARG. 7. Participatig i this ARG expaded my visio of techology use i educatio. Total (N=217) Strogly disagree Disagre e Neither disagree or agree Agree Strogly agree Mea sd As ca be see i Table 1, studets scored active participatio i the game as the highest statemet, with a high mea score of They foud playig the game egagig with (=149) respodig they either agreed or strogly agreed, ad ejoyable with 60.37% (=131) of studets either strogly agreed or agreed that they ejoyed participatig i the ARG. Studets ca be axious whe first attedig uiversity ad they are ofte i courses outside of their friedship circle. Oe of the advatages of studets completig the game is that they got to kow others i their tutorial class i a iformal way (walkig aroud the uiversity completig the game), thus the high score for statemet 3 with 88.84% (=191) agreed or strogly agreed, with a high mea score of Differeces accordig to Geder As preseted i Table 2, there were sigificat differece betwee males (mea=3.63) ad females (mea=3.81) i the overall experiece of usig the ARG. A closer look at the item-level, sigificat differeces oly appear for items 4 (mea for males=3.33, mea for female=3.60) ad 5 (mea for males=4.01, mea for female=4.28) at the alpha level.05. All of these differeces mea that female studets had a more favourable experiece tha male studets. 107

4 Table 2: Idepedet samples t-test accordig to geder (N=211) Statemets Variace t df Sig. (2-tailed) 1. I ejoyed participatig i the ARG Equal variaces assumed Equal variaces ot assumed I foud playig the ARG egagig. Equal variaces assumed Equal variaces ot assumed Through the ARG I got to kow some Equal variaces assumed of my classmates. Equal variaces ot assumed Through the ARG I leared some Equal variaces assumed aspects related to uiversity services Equal variaces ot assumed ad facilities. 5. I actively participated i the ARG. Equal variaces assumed Equal variaces ot assumed I feel more cofidet ow to participate i a Equal variaces assumed future ARG. Equal variaces ot assumed Participatig i this ARG expaded my Equal variaces assumed visio of techology use i educatio. Equal variaces ot assumed Total (Average of all statemets) Equal variaces assumed Equal variaces ot assumed Differeces accordig to Comfort with Techology Use We used oe-way aalysis of variace (ANOVA) to test if studets experieces were differet based o their comfort with techology use (see Table 3). There was o sigificat differece accordig to the overall experiece. The oly differece based o was i statemet 5 I actively participated i the ARG. Table 3: ANOVA Results for Differeces i ARG experiece accordig Comfort with Techology Use (N=211) Statemets Sum of Squares df Mea Square F Sig. 1 Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total Total= Average of all statemets Betwee Groups Withi Groups Total

5 Post-hoc aalysis usig Fisher s least sigificat differece (LSD) test shows that the differeces were oly sigificat betwee studets who reported a level 2 comfort with techology use ad the three higher levels (3, 4, ad 5), as ca be see i Table 4. This meas that studets with more comfort with techology (levels 3: mea=4.29, level 4: mea=4.15 ad level 5: mea=4.24) reported sigificatly higher participatio i the ARG, compared with the lower level (specifically level 2, mea=3.20). Oe limitatio of this fidig is the small umber (=7; 3.3%) i the lower levels (1 ad 2) of comfort with techology compared with the higher levels. Table 4: LSD Post hoc results for item 5 accordig to comfort with techology use (N=211) Levels of comfort with techology use ((1=Least comfortable; 5=Most comfortable) Mea Differece Std. Error Sig. 95% Cofidece Iterval Lower Boud Upper Boud * * * *. The mea differece is sigificat at the 0.05 level. Discussio ad Coclusio The positive results with the ARG show agreemet with the curret literature that suggests motivatio ad studet egagemet are ehaced through the use of ARGs i class (O Shea & Folkestad, 2010; O Shea, Mitchell, Johsto, & Dede, 2009; Squire & Ja, 2007). Studets were also able to get to kow their classmates which may have assisted i their ejoymet of the game ad activity. The results for this study show that studets ejoyed participatig i the ARG ad that the female studets had a more favourable experiece tha the male studets. The differeces i the studet s experiece depedig o their comfortable with techology eed to be take with cautio because of the small sample size i the lower level of comfort with techology use; the majority of studets are comfortable with usig techology i this study. For the small miority who still feel ucomfortable with techology use, it is expected that they will struggle with playig computer games. This small miority may have bee the older studets who were takig the course. I additio, this factor may have also bee diffused i this study as studets completed the game i groups. Future directios iclude havig studets lear the ecessary skills to create their ow ARGs so that they are be able to use ARGs with their future studets. As ARGs are such a ew teachig tool there is limited research o uiversity studets creatig ARGs, ivestigatig if the amout of time it takes to lear the desig process outweighs the effort. However, with games such as Pokémo Go there is ow reewed iterest i usig ARGs for educatioal purposes ad thus ew iterest is added to game creatio i educatioal cotexts. Ackowledgmets This game was created with the iitial assistace of Dr Patrick O Shea who preseted workshops o creatig ARGs for teachers at The Uiversity of Queeslad. Thaks also to the HASS Faculty Educatioal Desiger Chris Frost who assisted with techical expertise i the developmet of the game. 109

6 Refereces Aurasma (2014). Aurasma Augmeted Reality Browser. Retrieved August 8, 2016 from Dobies, T., & Nelso, C. (2016). Sapchat: Higher educatio s ew key to curret ad prospective studet egagemet. Joural of Educatio Advacemet & Marketig, 1(1), Kimbrough, A. M., Guadago, R. E., Muscaell, N. L., & Dill, J. (2013). Geder differeces i mediated commuicatio: Wome coect more tha do me. Computers i Huma Behavior,29(3), Merriam-Webster, Ic. (2014). Augmeted Reality. Merriam-Webster, Icorporated. Retrieved August 8, 2016 from O Shea, P.M. & Campbell, C. (2016). The theory ad process ivolved with educatioal augmeted reality game desig. I D. Russell ad J. Laffey, Hadbook of Research o Gamig Treds i P-12 Educatio. (pp ). ICI Global. O Shea, P., & Folkestad, J. (2010). Evaluatio of the augmeted reality project at the School i the Park. Upublished Mauscript. O Shea, P., Mitchell, R., Johsto, C, & Dede, C. (2009). Lessos leared about desigig augmeted realities. The Iteratioal Joural of Games ad Computer Mediated Simulatios, 1(1). Squire, K.D., & Ja, M. (2007). Mad city mystery: Developig scietific argumetatio skills with a placebased augmeted reality game o hadheld computers. Joural of Sciece Educatio ad Techology, 16, 1, Vercelletto, C. (2016). What s after Pokemo Go? Explore augmeted reality Sept 13: SLJ ISTE Webcast Series. Retrieved from Yoder, M. (2016). Use these resources to brig augmeted reality to your classroom. Retrieved from Please cite as: Campbell, C., & Al-Harthi, A. (2016). Itroducig pre-service educatio studets to uiversity experieces through a augmeted reality game. I S. Barker, S. Dawso, A. Pardo, & C. Colvi (Eds.), Show Me The Learig. Proceedigs ASCILITE 2016 Adelaide (pp ). Note: All published papers are refereed, havig udergoe a double-blid peer-review process. The author(s) assig a Creative Commos by attributio licece eablig others to distribute, remix, tweak, ad build upo their work, eve commercially, as log as credit is give to the author(s) for the origial creatio. 110